Vowel perception: A neuroradiological localization of the perception of vowels in the human cortex

Whether the perception of vowels takes place in the right or left cerebral hemisphere, or is dependent on bilateral cortical processes, is of importance in our treatment of patients with language deficiencies. To investigate this problem a phonetic test with a series of vowellike stimuli was administered to 68 right-handed adult patients with cerebral lesions, mainly of vascular origin. The results were compared to the results in a control group of 19 speech therapists. Second, a neuroradiologic method was developed in order to visualize the anatomic site of Wernicke's area in the left hemisphere on CT scans. This method formed the basis for an evaluation of the extent and localization of the patients' lesions in Wernicke's area. Of 46 patients with lesions in the left hemisphere, 19 had no perceptual disturbances and 27 had severe perceptual disturbances with lesions predominantly located in Wernicke's area. Twenty-two patients with lesions in the corresponding area in the right hemisphere showed no perceptual disturbances. The results of this investigation appear to indicate that the perception of vowels in right-handed persons is unilaterally located in Wernicke's area in the left hemisphere.     

Reexamining Gender Issues in Erikson's Stages of Identity and Intimacy

A number of writers have argued that Erikson's stages of identity and intimacy do not address the experience of women accurately. Several have argued that in women these stages are reversed or fused. This article contends that such claims come out of a serious misreading of Erikson's work and shows that the stages as they stand are not incompatible with the idea that there are relational components of identity formation. New directions for feminist reinterpretations of Erikson's work and for research that reflects his theory more accurately are discussed.     

Book notes

Longman Guide to Living Religions. Ian Harris, Stuart Mews, Paul Morris & John Shepherd, eds., 1994 Harlow, Essex: Longman Group 278 pp., £13.95 ISBN 0–582–25297–0.

Rúmi: Poet and Mystic. Reynold A. Nicholson, 1995 Oxford: Oneworld Publications 190 pp., £6.95 ISBN 1–85168–096–9

The Essentials of Mysticism & Other Essays. Evelyn Underhill, 1995 Oxford: Oneworld Publications 196 pp., £5.95 ISBN 1–85168–060–8

Concerning the Inner Life. Evelyn Underhill, 1995 Oxford: Oneworld Publications 96 pp., £3.95 ISBN 1–85168–054–3     

Phonetic analysis of speech and memory codes in beginning readers

Two experimental tasks, a speech segmentation and a short-term memory task, were presented to children who began to learn to read following either the “phonic” or the “wholeword” method. The segmentation task required the child to reverse two segments (either two phones or two syllables) in an utterance. The phonic group performed significantly better than the whole-word group in the “phonic reversal” task, but no difference appeared in the “syllable reversal” task. This indicated (1) that most children by the age of 6 years are ready to discover that speech consists of a sequence of phones and (2) that the moment at which they do it is influenced by the way they are taught to read. In the memory task, the children recalled series of visually presented items whose names either rhymed or did not. The difference in performance for the rhyming and nonrhyming series was significant in both groups. It was no greater for the phonic than for the whole-word group and was uncorrelated with the “phonic reversal” task. These results are discussed in connection with the distinction between ways of lexical access and ways of representing verbal information in short-term memory.     

Comparing Attention to Socially-Relevant Stimuli in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Developmental Coordination Disorder

Difficulties with social interaction have been reported in both children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD), although these disorders have very different diagnostic characteristics. To date, assessment of social skills in a DCD population has been limited to paper-based assessment or parent report. The present study employed eye tracking methodology to examine how children attend to socially-relevant stimuli, comparing 28 children with DCD, 28 children with ASD and 26 typically-developing (TD) age-matched controls (aged 7–10). Eye movements were recorded while children viewed 30 images, half of which were classed as ‘Individual’ (one person in the scene, direct gaze) and the other half were ‘Social’ (more naturalistic scenes showing an interaction). Children with ASD spent significantly less time looking at the face/eye regions in the images than TD children, but children with DCD performed between the ASD and TD groups in this respect. Children with DCD demonstrated a reduced tendency to follow gaze, in comparison to the ASD group. Our findings confirm that social atypicalities are present in both ASD and to a lesser extent DCD, but follow a different pattern. Future research would benefit from considering the developmental nature of the observed findings and their implications for support.